Forza Horizon 3: "Improved PC Performance" Patch Notes

  • Thread starter PJTierney
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PJTierney

PJTierney

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PJTierney
https://www.forzamotorsport.net/en-us/news/fh3_hot_wheels_available

PC Update Improvements
Alongside the release of the Forza Horizon 3 Hot Wheels expansion we are pleased to announce numerous critical improvements included in the Windows 10 PC version of the game. These improvements are included in today’s automatic update, and do not require the Hot Wheels expansion to take advantage of.



Expanded Driving Wheel Support
With the most recent update of Windows 10, Windows Creators Edition, we have expanded our list of officially supported steering wheels for PC. The full list of newly supported wheels:



· Logitech Driving Force GT

· Logitech MOMO Force Feedback Racing Wheel

· Logitech G920

· Logitech G29

· Logitech G25

· Logitech G27

· Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base V1

· Fanatec CSV2

· Fanatec CSR

· Thrustmaster TS-PC

· Thrustmaster T150

· Thrustmaster T500 RS

· Thrustmaster TMX V1

· Thrustmaster TMX V2

· Thrustmaster T300RS

· Thrustmaster TX 458 Edition

· Thrustmaster TX 599 Edition

· Thrustmaster TX Leather Edition

· Thrustmaster TX F1 Edition

· Thrustmaster TX GTE Edition

· Thrustmaster RGT



b3fcdc70-2b69-4068-bf6d-5b520db59d7a.jpg




Improved CPU Performance
We have observed that a large portion of players are CPU limited when trying to run Forza Horizon 3 at high frame rates, including locked 60 FPS and unlocked. By analyzing telemetry, we have developed targeted optimizations for this group of affected players by increasing the number of concurrent threads used by the render architecture. We have taken further advantage of DX12 capabilities to allow the visuals to be processed out of order during the frame, in order to reduce synchronization stalls and decrease CPU execution duration. These changes result in a significant CPU performance gain on High or Ultra settings when running on PCs of Recommended spec or better.



Updated Thread Model
We have updated our threading affinity model to make better use of all available cores. Along with this change, we have added a new graphics option to disable the new model, should you prefer. This option can be found in the Video Settings menu under “Threaded Optimization”.



More Graphical Options
We have also added some additional graphical options to improve framerate for those playing on lower specification PCs. These include:



· Dynamic Geometry Quality now has a Very Low option

· World Car Level of Detail now has a Very Low option



These are combined with some existing options to create a new “Very Low” preset that can be used with dynamic optimization.



Additionally, all options have had their descriptions updated to include information on how each setting affects the CPU performance, GPU performance, and available VRAM, so that players can better understand the performance impact that tweaking each setting will have.



044a2c06-d32a-4a57-9f27-2e9ced9904c1.jpg




Updated Minimum Specification
Along with the performance improvements coming with this release, we are lowering the minimum specification to reduce the CPU requirement and the NVIDIA GPU requirement.






Minimum Specification

CPU

i3-4170 @ 3.7Ghz

GPU

NVIDIA GT 740 | AMD R7 250x

VRAM

2GB GDDR5

RAM

8GB

Hard Drive Type

HDD

Resolution

1280 x 720
Click to expand...
 
I don't want to get ahead of myself, but has anyone else driven around Surfer's Paradise? As I mentioned in the other thread, I haven't raced yet, but the worst offender areas are showing solid frame rates now :D
 
@HuskyGT Yeah, I can't believe how much better it is! I remember one street (the one that goes between the Surfer's Paradise festival site and the tram line to the south) that I used to get 30fps on is now 55fps at the lowest, and the main road through Byron Bay, where I used to get around 40fps, is the same. I've seen highs of 90fps, I'm fairly sure my old maximum was in the 70s. This is just in freeroam, but I see no reason to suspect racing will be any worse.

For the record, I'm running the game with every setting maxed at 1440p on an i5 4690K and a GTX 1080. I knew it was a core affinity issue before because I saw it using 100% of one core from launch until it crashed (I don't know if it'll still crash, though, I didn't play long enough, although I did alt-tab out which didn't cause the issues it used to), so they really did fix it. It always looked stunning but now it runs smoothly too, I'm very impressed!
 
@neema_t I'm playing at 1080p, with the 72fps lock option. Mostly High settings. Enough to make it look as good as the Xbox, but run smoother. I run an overclocked i5 6600k and a GTX 1070. It is indeed unbelievable. I think I've driven around the entire city twice now, driving slow and fast. That FPS counter is fluctuating occasionally between 70 and 72.

I was also racing a cross country event at night with rain somewhere else on the map. I noticed no drops at start or during the race.

Whatever they did with the CPU usage fix worked.
 
I'm seeing performance DROPS in the form of major lag and stuttering - Ultra is now outright impossible to play on for me, and High, which used to run at a stable 60 with only occasional stuttering at the absolute highest of speeds, now stutters a lot more and occasionally even locks up for several seconds at a time. Is anyone else having similar issues?
 
Just finished a championship in Surfer's Paradise. All the circuits including Skyline View which is (was) the worst in performance. No drops at all! So yes. It's been fixed. I also bumped up all the graphic settings to High (still with the 72fps lock) and have had no drops. Will gradually bump them higher, including the AA options to their higher setting to see if there is any changes.

But I'm happy for now. The game looks and runs better than the Xbox version. It's all I wanted.
 
Would my PC be able to run Forza Horizon 3 at decent settings now? I've been wanting to pick this game up for ages now

Here's my specs
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (Purchased For $64.93)
Motherboard: ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (Purchased For $61.98)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (Purchased For $59.99)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $53.99)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SSC GAMING ACX 3.0 Video Card (Purchased For $133.98)
Case: Corsair - SPEC-02 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $57.98)
Power Supply: EVGA - BQ 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $57.39)
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $17.79)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link - TL-WDN4800 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter ($36.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $544.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-10 10:39 EDT-0400

Disregard wireless network adapter that's an add on I'm doing to my build
 
Will the wheel rotation option return for PC? I love playing Forza but gets annoying being locked at like 180 degrees of rotation max. Yes i've checked my drivers and wheel settings they're all correct, there used to be an ingame option to change it but the first update to change wheels kind of ruined it for me :/
 
Has anyone had problems with crashing following this update? Haven't tried it yet, but previously the game crashed quite a lot on my PC (I5-6600K + GTX1060).
 
MroczMR
Will this apply to a PC Demo? I need to check new minimums specs before buying.
Click to expand...
Im in the same boat.
No problems with the Video Card. However, I have no idea if an AMD FX-8320E Eight-Core processor is going to make it. I was pretty sure that it wasnt going to make it on the old minimum specs, but what about now? No idea, really.
 
I was excited when I saw "Driving Force GT" on the list - until I remembered that I'm playing on an Xbox One. :(
 
This is a great example of how post-release support should be done, I mean ok, it took some time but I imagine it required a significant rework of the Xbox One port to achieve. I hope Playground Games and Microsoft (for allowing them the man hours to work on this update) get the recognition they deserve for this, I really thought we'd just have to put up with the mediocre performance forever.

@Snorevette - have you tried diagnosing the problem with something like Afterburner?
 
Booted up the game to see how it performs now, crashed about three minutes in. :indiff: Props to MS and PG for the post launch support, though.
 
Oh wow. I really hope that optimized CPU thing is true, along with the minimum CPU spec.

I've been struggling a bit because my CPU is a bottleneck. The only way I can't get solid 30 fps or close to it in surfers paradise is by shutting off shadows (one less thing for the CPU to calculate). I run at 4k because resolution, and 90% of the settings have no affect on FPS (I run on low settings just to be sure, but other than shadows, almost nothing affects my fps that much if at all). That's how much of a bottleneck my i3-2130 is. I do have 12 GB RAM and a GTX 1060 6 GB, so I'm good to go there, it's just CPU that has been the issue. The i3-41xx or whatever they have as the minimum spec really isn't that much better than my CPU so I should get better performance now.

Really hope these patch notes are true. I just want solid 30 fps. That's all I want.

PJTierney
From what I've read elsewhere, the Demo is using original specification right now but an update is in the pipeline.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's using the first CPU update they did back last fall, but the demo is still definitely less optimized than the full game was for me even a month ago. Haven't tested this new update but the demo was already worse than the full game performance wise.

MroczMR
Will this apply to a PC Demo? I need to check new minimums specs before buying.
Click to expand...

I bought the game a month ago and I can confirm, the demo is definitely worse performance wise in regards to CPU optimization. Can't say anything about GPU optimization because my GPU isn't a bottleneck at all really
 
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I had also gotten used to the idea that the performance issues would never be fixed. Came kind of late since I've completed the game, but it is highly appreciated.

I do get screen tearing when turning V-Sync off though. Not sure if it's on my end, or it's just the way the game is. I unlocked the frames and get around 120-ish. My monitor has a 144hz refresh rate, so I shouldn't be experiencing tear. Back to the 72fps lock and V-Sync :/
 
ZDUPH
And....what fixes for the XBOX version? Where are the patch notes for that?
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The patch was aimed at PC because on PC you can run the game at 60fps (and even higher). That is where some people were having issues (maintaining a stable 60fps). NOBODY complained about the performance being bad while having the 30fps cap in place. And because the X1 has a 30fps cap the issues never were a thing on the console. So in other words... There was no need to patch the X1 version of the game. It already ran perfectly fine.
 
I had huge lag spike in car selection on unlocked fps but other than that the game runs really smoothly now for me. (i7-4790k, 16gb ddr3 ram + 1080).
 
TwinTurbo LM
Does the game run well with 8GB RAM now?
Click to expand...

Not sure but I did notice before that the game uses nearly 8 GB of system RAM (luckily I have 12 GB). Same with Forza 6 Apex. I used to only have 6 GB, and I was shocked that it wasn't enough for Forza 6. Was cheap to upgrade to 12 GB but still surprising. Never seen a game use that much RAM.
 
Was crazy dealing with ultra settings on everything 2560x1080 and only sitting around 65fps on i5 7600k and 1070 FTW and 16gb ddr4, now sitting around solid 80fps, and so much less dipping.
 
I used to get lag spikes on medium preset+60fps cap with my 3.5Ghz i5, R9 390, and 16GB Ram but now I run at a constant 60fps no matter what. I'm gonna try to see if this update made enough difference I can start upping the settings 👍
 
I've noticed an extreme performance improvement on my machine. I have 8GB DDR4, i5-6500, and an Nvidia GTX 1050Ti. I'm getting a solid 60fps even on high! City still drops slightly but sits closer to 50 than at 45. I also have a LOT less stuttering. Such a solid update!
 
One thing I've noticed is now Horizon 3 uses all CPU cores equally.

Before this update, using MSI afterburner I was able to see that CPU 1 was hitting 100% usage often while the other 3 cores were around 70-85% CPU usage.

Now they're literally all matched. CPU usage is equal across all 4 cores now. That's the way it should be. You'll never get the best out of a CPU otherwise. If a game is maxing out 1 core, your overall CPU usage could be only around 60%, but you still will have poor framerates because the game is trying to use only 1 core and maxing it out.

LA Noire on PC is an example. on my PC, CPU 1 is highly used, while the rest are at around 10% utilization. Assassin's Creed 3 has a similar problem which is why almost no CPU can run it at 60 fps steadily.

The only negative for me is that resolution now affects framerate. It didn't before this update because of the extreme bottleneck from the CPU, but now running at 4k actually does cost me some framerate. Which is the way it's supposed to be in the first place.
 
I don't know about you guys, but the old crash on save when customizing/tuning is back. Happens maybe once or twice during sessions. No big deal though. I rather have this than lag or CPU over use.
 

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